Archive for the ‘Post-traumatic stress disorder’ Category

The labyrinth often based on a spiral is known to be a design feature likely 4,000 years old. This art form can be found in many cultures around the world such as India, France, Egypt, Scandinavia, Crete, Samaria, America, the British Isles, and Italy, and in all cases, they were built to share a common theme of pilgrimage and spiritual reward. Most are created as a spiral path leading to a central point and then back out again. For instance one of the oldest depictions of a Celtic Spiral that could have served as inspiration is found in a passage tomb Near Kells Meath, Ireland. Here we can see a series of three spirals.

Says Avia Venefica, “This is where labyrinths are often confused with mazes. Big difference. Mazes are designed to challenge intellect and strategic skills. Whereas the labyrinth is an exercise in soul development.”

The spiral, unlike that pesky maze, can be found in nature in a shell, a pine cone or even in the rose blossom are reflected in a labyrinth as a curving line around a central point. This might mean movement, growth, change or providing a continuously shifting perspective that can be inspiring and sometimes life renewing. (1) Its a nice idea that walking a labyrinth is a metaphor for life -the path shifts in unexpected ways, sometimes away from your goal, but ultimately leading you to the center. Says a Labyrinth Facilitator; Chris Beam, “it is a powerful meditation tool, helping to quiet the mind and allowing time of reflection.”

In contrast, passing through a maze – one in which the path divides repeatedly and there is a risk of becoming disoriented and lost – is a much more individual and potentially threatening exercise. It symbolizes the way in which the mind can easily become confused and sidetracked. In the maze, unlike the labyrinth, we are faced by many choices with outcomes that are uncertain (2).

So what path are we on in today’s world? I would like to think we are on a pre-planned “labyrinth” path where even though twisting and turning directions seem confusing, there is some set destination or ending point in store. However, I think more often that life in the over informed, technology imbued, speed of light 21st century is more like the maze mentioned earlier – our path constantly challenges us to evaluate progress and decide to turn left or right, back up or move ahead.

Maybe the group DEVO had it right and our philosophy should be to just to “Shape it up, Get straight, Go forward, Move ahead, Try to detect it, It’s not too late to whip it, Whip it good.”

Memory association can be a funny thing. Take for example an empty cigarette box laying on the sidewalk during a morning run. For most “normal” people all they see is an empty paper box that should be thrown in the trash can, but for some of us who went through deployment training as part of the Implementation Force (IFOR) NATO-peace enforcement force (Bosnia and Herzegovina Operation Joint Endeavour), what I see is a potential booby trap. Before heading into Bosnia to join some 54,000 troops from 32 countries we trained for week at the Europe-based Combat Training Center (CTC) Hohenfels Training Area, Germany. Field training in freezing January in Germany is a “thrill” to say the least. The block of instruction I remember best involved hand made booby traps now thanks to Iraq and Afghanistan are officially renamed “Improvised Explosive Devices” (IEDs).

This training was necessary because United Nations estimates at the time were that Bosnia has been seeded with four to eight million land mines (later doubled) with many turned into booby traps. US Army’s First Armored Division Public Affairs talked with the New York Times back in 1995 and said “there’s a wide variety of mines, from high tech mines all the way to crude, hastily fabricated mines,” and “Some of the mines are handmade –– out of wooden boxes.” Did you know that former Yugoslavia was one of the few countries that proudly promoted manufactured booby-trapped items like flashlights, fountain pens and door handles? Me neither – talk about mission suck! So we had to train to recognize potential booby traps and mines. I really wasn’t worried about myself setting off a booby trap, but I did worry constantly that one my 60 soldiers in my Company Command or those driving our soft side HMMWV’s all around Bosnia would set off a mine. I knew we were planning on establishing communication systems in lots of building, mountain tops and other places that were likely mined or booby trapped.

So what’s the big deal with an empty cigarette box, or a block of wood or even and empty soda can sitting there so innocently on your path to work? Well they all can be tied with a nearly invisible fishing line that is attached back to a tree, door or wall mounted explosive device. Once you pick up or kick that item our of the way (hey, who doesn’t kick a rock or stick off a path?) the dummy item pulls the line pin and the device explodes. Devices were often set about waist level, to cause the greatest amount of physical damage. Image US Army Survival Regulation

To get some idea of the extend of mines and traps when I arrived at Tuzla Main in January 1995, our first safety brief off the plane was that the base has been heavily mined. That’s why all of the forests on the base are ringed with loops of barbed wire and wooden stakes painted red warning of mine fields. We had mine fields just dozen feet from my tent and reminded ourselves daily about the danger on our walk to and from work. In Bosnia, concrete was your friend any anything else could be mined. The second point was don’t stand up on the protective berms around the base because you will be silhouette and sniper target. Wow- what a great welcome to Bosnia!

Its amazing how creative people can become when it involves killing other people. This diagram was taken from the USMC Pamphlet on Viet Cong use of Mines and Booby Traps during the Vietnam War. Obviously after years and years of civil war within the former Yugoslavia, the various factions had perfected their craft. Note to self on the situation shown below – leave the watch alone.

In sessions conducted in 1995 before leaving for Bosnia, our training was to touch nothing that we didn’t own and to go nowhere that has not been cleared with mine sweepers. The Bosnia mantra was if you didn’t drop it – don’t pick it up.” Good advice because according to the UN site dedicated to monitoring land mines, the initial estimate of total land mines was more than doubled to seven million mines in Bosnia. Looking back at the data in the former Yugoslavia after a year in country 1996, antipersonnel landmines killed 42 Peacekeepers and injured Note to self on the situation above – leave the watch alone. alone.315. https://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/57jn74.htm

Bringing it back around to memory and association, while we cant help but immediately recall our training and experiences given certain stimuli, we can step back from the memory “jolt” and say, “I am so glad none of my troops were injured.” I appreciate that any negative memories are worth this price because we were successful in stopping the regional genocide that by 1995 had claimed the lives of some 100,000 people reported as the worst act of genocide since World War II. http://www.history.com/topics/bosnian-genocide